ARTICLES ABOUT VOTER REGISTRATION OFFICE BY DATE - PAGE 4

The updating of Northampton County's voter rolls has begun. Postcards went out this week to every registered voter in an effort to purge the rolls of voters who have died or moved. If notification is not made to the voter registration office, those voters remain on the rolls. The information received by the voters asks them to disregard the mailing if the listed information is correct. If the information is not correct, voters are asked to make corrections and send back the card.

To the Editor: The March 1 story on the need to update the Northampton County voter rolls mentioned that the county will conduct a $40,000 update to locate registrants who have moved. It appears from the article that the Voter Registration Office will survey all 156,000 registered voters to make such a determination. But, if, as former Registrar Richard Benner suggests, there are about 20,000 people on the list who shouldn't be there, I wonder if it would not make more sense to use an NCOA matching system to find those 20,000 names.

To the Editor: I was very upset to read Northampton County Executive Glenn Reibman's comment in the March 1 Morning Call regarding Richard Benner, the former registrar of the Northampton County Election Office. As a former employee of the Voter Registration Office, I disagree with his remark. Mr. Benner worked diligently to comply with all aspects of the `Motor Voter` law but realized we could not implement everything at once. His first task was to find a new computer system to help track voters, change addresses we received from PennDOT, and produce reports required by the state and federal governments.

The Lehigh County Government Center's brick wall are reflected in the Allentown building's glass exterior in the morning light Friday. The last day to register to vote in the April primary is Monday, when the Voter Registration Office in the government center at 17 S. Seventh St. will be open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Lehigh County residents who want to mail their voter registration applications must use the Lehigh County Government Center address to guarantee delivery to the Voter Registration Office. The address is 17 S. Seventh St., Allentown 18101-2400. All recently printed registration materials include that address, but old forms in circulation have an outdated post office box address. The post office is no longer forwarding the forms to the county but is returning them to the sender. For information about voter registration, call 610-782-3194.

The winner of the Easton city treasurer post will be confirmed at 9 a.m. today when the Northampton County Voter Registration office holds its official count. Although Democrat David Fleck believed he captured the position Tuesday, unofficial totals in the registrar's office Thursday showed incumbent Republican John McGraw as the winner. Unofficial results obtained Tuesday night by The Morning Call had Fleck as the winner by 3 votes. Florence Piatt, city Democratic Committee chairwoman, said her workers had Fleck winning with more than 100 votes.

A land-development lawyer has been the only contributor to a political committee that for six years has supported re-election efforts of several Lower Saucon Township Council members. Concerned Taxpayers of Lower Saucon Township in 1995 and 1997 funded re-election efforts of Gerry Szakmeister, Barry Gebhart and Neil Ortwein. This year, the committee supports Szakmeister, Gebhart and Wil Morrison for the three open council seats. In the 1995 and 1997 elections and in the May primary election, Bethlehem attorney Dennis Benner was the only contributor to the committee.